FlowGPT corralling GenAI apps Wild West style!
In the rapidly advancing world of Generative AI models and apps blink and you lose ground!
Have you heard of FlowGPT?
If not, then read on! If you have, well still read on, it is fun to see what is happening out there....
A few months ago, OpenAI launched the GPT Store. As the name suggests GPT Store was a store or marketplace where you can create and list AI-powered chatbots. These chatbots can be customized to perform certain tasks, I am sure you have used one if not several of them.
The GPT Store is powerful but has one huge drawback....
Using the GPT Store means using ONLY OpenAI’s models.
And we love choice don't we? Well I certainly do and so do some chatbot creators and other users.
So of course alternatives have sprung up. Once such start up is FlowGPT.
What the fluff is FlowGPT?
Generative AI models are a type of artificial intelligence that can be used to create new things, like text, code, or images. They are trained on a large amount of data, and they can learn to generate new outputs that are similar to the data they were trained on.
FlowGPT is is a new app store that allows users to create and share apps that use generative AI models.
Signing up is easy, you just do it through email if you want. I did and that is a screenshot of the home page for me.
Through FlowGPT, users can build their own GenAI-powered apps and make them publicly available, earning tips for their contributions.
Who created FlowGPT?
Jay Dang who was a UC Berkeley computer science dropout (don't you just love college dropouts so much in the tech world is created via them!) and Lifan Wang who is a former engineering manager at Amazon, co-founded FlowGPT in 2023.
They had a shared desire to create a platform where people could quickly spin up — and share — GenAI apps.
And so FlowGPT was born!
FlowGPT lovering the bar
“There’s still a learning curve for users to use AI,” Dang told TechCrunch in an email interview. “FlowGPT is making the bar lower in each iteration, making it more accessible.”
I think this is spot on, I know that the more I use AI the better my prompts seem to become or at least the better my results seem to be.
Users interact with GenAI apps on FlowGPT through a chat window with options to type in prompts, thumbs-up (or thumbs-down) apps, share links to conversations or tip individual app creators. Each app has a creator-provided description along with the date it was created, how many times it’s been used and the model the creator recommends to power it.
But and this where the Wild West comes in....
There are some concerns about the safety of FlowGPT apps.
Some of the apps that have been created with FlowGPT have been found to be harmful, such as apps that generate hateful content or spread misinformation. FlowGPT is working on safety measures to prevent this, such as developing guidelines for app developers and creating a system for reviewing apps before they are published.
The future of FlowGPT
Despite the concerns about safety, investors are still interested in FlowGPT. The company has recently raised $50 million in funding, and it is planning to expand its app store to new markets.
As you can see from my first screenshot they are looking for Beta testers for the Andorid and iOS Apps....
Personally I know GenAI is here to stay. The more choice we have then the better it is. FlowGPT is a great addition to the GenAI scene and hopefully will get creators creating more and more useful things.
Beware though, there are well dodgy not to mention immoral apps in there.
Hopefully they will get the site moderated and get rid of malicious crap.
References and Sources
All ramblings are from me, the mad Scotsman TengoLoTodo unless otherwise stated, note lead image is generated with AI on pixlr .com from a prompt by me.
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